Quake kills hundredsin Pakistan, India

BY SUSAN KIM | BALTIMORE |
October 8, 2005

A 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck Pakistan and India Saturday, causing severe damage. Early government reports indicate hundreds of people are dead.

Entire villages are buried in landslides, reports said.

In Pakistan, villages north of the capital Islamabad were hardest hit.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported the quake hit at 8:50 a.m. local time, and was centered some 60 miles northeast of Islamabad, in the mountains of Kashmir, a territory divided between India and Pakistan. More than 100 people were dead in the India-controlled part of Kashmir.

In Pakistan's Mansehra district, 70 percent of the mud brick homes had collapsed, according to a government report. In Islamabad, a 10-story apartment building collapsed, and rescuers were searching for dozens of missing people.